Up The Stairs | Research-Based Serious Game to Empower Young Adults with Aphasia

Up The Stairs is an internationally recognised, award-winning, research-based Serious Game that bridges scientific research, therapy-informed design, and artistic expression, designed to support young adults with aphasia - a language disorder often caused by stroke or brain injury - rooted in Greek Mediterranean light, symbolism, and lived experience.

The project blends accessibility, poetic worldbuilding, and speech therapy techniques seamlessly integrated into the gameplay within a gently surreal Aegean environment, where language, memory, and emotional experience unfold through play.

Up The Stairs was selected as one of the top three shortlisted nominees in the 2025 Serious Games Competition at the international Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA), organised by the Serious Games Society in collaboration with Utrecht University and sponsored by the Center for Advanced Preparedness and Threat Response Simulation, from which a travel grant was also awarded in support of the project’s participation.

The game was exhibited as part of the GALA Exhibition, within a wider international ecosystem of cross-disciplinary events in the Netherlands, including the DiGRA Symposium, the Dutch Game Week Conference, and Dutch Game Week.

In parallel, the project’s gameplay video, created as a hybrid cinematic piece presenting the interactive experience through guided narration, subtitles, and allegorical imagery, received the award for Best Experimental Film at the International Epidaurus Film Festival 2025. While originally designed as an interactive experience, the video can also be viewed as an allegorical reflection on recovery and resilience, symbolising the journey of reclaiming agency and connection.

An extended abstract on the project (research and development) has been included in the GALA 2025 Games Competition and Exhibition Book of Abstracts, an academic publication hosted by the University of Southampton (UK).

The project has also been presented in academic, creative, and business contexts, including a guest speaker presentation during Stuttgart Animated Week 2026 - within the international ecosystem of ITFS Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, FMX Film & Media Exchange, and Animation Production Days (APD), Germany, as part of the ITFS Guest Programme.

It was also presented through a guest speaker presentation at the Festivals Animation Network (FAN) Animation Hub Symposium (2026), held at AKTO College of Arts in Athens, Greece - within the wider European network supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA Programme of the European Union.

The game opens with a tremor that shakes a vast staircase spiralling toward a floating sculpted head in the sky. A storm of cloud-shaped letters erupts. The player, glimpsed only in first person, falls from the sky and lands on a gently surreal Greek Aegean island, sunlit and dreamlike. The visual style unfolds at a crossroads of -isms, where surrealism, symbolism, romanticism, and grounded realism meet, shaping a poetic, emotionally resonant world.

Here, prickly pears hover, chickens have humour, corn holds meaning, and postcards are never sent.

Guided by Young Oceanus, an NPC mentor who runs a whimsical pop-up canteen, the player journeys through eight narrative “Stations” set within a symbolic 3D environment. As the player explores, they encounter integrated 2D mini-games (designed as “therapeutic” tasks) embedded seamlessly into the gameplay. Both the 3D world and the 2D tasks draw on real-world speech therapy techniques (PACE, Musical Intonation Therapy, Cognitive Therapy), creating symbolic and functional challenges that mirror the player's inner recovery journey. Each completed task contributes to rebuilding the broken staircase - a path back to voice, memory, connection, and recovery.

The game features original sound design and a custom-composed soundtrack, crafted to support its emotional tone and aesthetic flow.

Up The Stairs - in its current prototype form - was developed as the creator’s dissertation for a BA (Hons) in Game Design at Middlesex University London - AKTO Art & Design College, following a broader multidisciplinary academic journey and a return to higher education through game design as a lifelong learner. The degree was awarded with First Class Honours and an Award of Outstanding Academic Achievement.

The game is intentionally designed to allow future scalability, with a foundational structure that can potentially support research, accessibility-focused, narrative, and expressive development. Together with its design documentation and research outcomes on game mechanics, the project lays the groundwork for a broader Game Mechanics for Empowerment Framework (GaME-F) and its aphasia-oriented direction, exploring an interdisciplinary, evidence-informed methodology and emerging design taxonomy that bridges game design and technology with educational and rehabilitative practices for accessibility, engagement, and empowerment across Serious Games, gamified processes, and broader multimodal contexts.

Planned expansions include the evolution of the mentor into a fully 3D character; the addition of new narrative “Stations” with extended levels; enriched vocabulary and verb networks; everyday life scenarios; and an advanced implementation of Musical Intonation Therapy in mini-game form. The project also envisions multilingual support, social and vocational reintegration modules, and the ongoing development of a broader code of ethics and inclusion to guide future extensions.

Inspired as a sister, the creator drew from her brother’s recovery journey after a stroke and his experience with aphasia. Up The Stairs is lovingly dedicated to him and their mother, to celebrate Life, The Mother, and Siblings’ Love.

Blending accessibility, symbolism, Mediterranean light and sea, the game becomes a space for finding language - inviting reflection, resilience, and healing. Ultimately, it aims to grow into a creative, interactive platform for empowerment, communication, and recovery, designed for young adults with aphasia and beyond.
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Additional Materials & References
In addition to the materials included here, this project has generated a wide range of presentations, design iterations, and audiovisual or written documentation - including design documents, builds, journals, development timelines, voice-over scripts, and an additional creator’s note in audio format (MP3) with original music created for accessibility (in Greek). These resources were developed to research, design, build, and present the game in multiple formats in both Greek and English. A detailed list of documentation and deliverables is available upon request.

In addition to the materials included here, this project has generated a wide range of presentations, design iterations, and audiovisual or written documentation - including a game design document, builds, journals, development timelines, voice-over scripts, 3D modelling and visual development materials, and an additional creator’s note in audio format (MP3) with original music created for accessibility (in Greek). These resources were developed to research, design, build, and present the game in multiple formats in both Greek and English. A detailed list of documentation and deliverables is available upon request.